Luciano: Disorder of the dog leads to disorder

What do you get when you take a big dog with separation anxiety, then add a riled neighbor with an itchy trigger finger?

A rattled neighborhood.

First, residents were alarmed by a Rottweiler running loose in the area. Now they wonder about a neighbor who took matters into his own hand with three angry gunshots.

Police are trying to sort out the specifics of the feud. It’s hard to tell how long trouble has been simmering in the 3000 block of West Proctor Street. There, a 40-something woman lives with her 20-year-old son, plus an 11-month-old Rottweiler. (We’re not publishing the woman’s name, because she hasn’t been charged with any crime.)

The rear of the lot is fenced in. But neighbors tell me the dog often would jump out an open window at the side or front of the house, then run through the neighborhood. The dog’s owner declined to talk to me.

But Lauren Malmberg, head of animal control of Peoria County, says the owner has blamed the window-jumping on “separation anxiety.” Malmberg didn’t quite understand that excuse. Perhaps the dog was desperate to find its owner when the owner went to work during the day. Beats me. I’m no dog psychologist.

They say they called animal control. Indeed, Malmberg confirms receiving three reports on the dog since April, including allegations of the dog running loose — and one time even being hit by a car. An animal-control officer responded to the scene each time, but couldn’t spot any loose dog.

Why no further investigation? All the reports were anonymous. For a follow-up, the agency needs a signed complaint, to ensure a beef is legit.

“You don’t know (from an anonymous call) if there’s a real violation, or if someone’s nose is out of joint because a neighbor parked a car too close to their house or whatever,” Malmberg says.

If there’s no signed complaint, and if the dog has disappeared, there’s nothing more animal control can do.

“They might be frustrated with us,” Malmberg says. “But they really need to sign a complaint.”

Friday night, a neighbor made a complaint — with a pistol.

At 8:15, ShotSpotter — the Peoria Police Department’s high-tech gunfire-detection system — indicated three gunshots in the 3000 block of West Proctor Street. At the home of the Rottweiler, police encountered the owner and her dog.

She said that minutes earlier, a neighbor had walked into her front yard and yelled about her not having the dog on a leash. She said that she did not have to leash the dog on her own property — which, by county and city ordinances, is true.

She said that the man then pulled a black handgun from his waistband and shot at the dog, missing. As the dog ran, the owner yelled at the neighbor to put down his weapon. Instead, he allegedly moved toward the dog, squeezing off two more rounds, both errant.

As she called to the dog, the neighbor grabbed her by the throat, then shoved her to the ground, according to a police report. When her son came out to investigate the gunplay, the neighbor pointed the gun at him, then ran off, the report stated.

Peoria police continue to investigate. The neighbor, who lives in a well groomed home, did not reply to my request for comment. He is not being named here because he has not been charged with a crime.

Tuesday, as I talked to neighbors, I repeated what Malmberg had told me: animal-control officers won’t thoroughly investigate any loose dog without a signed complaint. I don’t know if they intended to do so, but they did apparently feel to repeat their concerns to the county: later that day, calls came in that the Rottie was running loose. Animal-control officers arrived, this time spotting and capturing the animal.

They contacted the owner, saying she’d be fined $50 for letting a dog run at large. She replied that the county could keep the dog, Malmberg says. The owner said the dog had suffered hip displacement from being hit by a car in May, and thus likely needed to be put down anyway.

“It probably will be euthanized,” Malmberg told me.

I guess that eliminates one neighborhood problem — unless the woman gets another dog that also suffers emotional problems and runs around loose.

Still, there is the matter of the neighbor with the gun, which police are still looking into. Usually, it’s hard to end feuds with gunfire: just ask the Hatfields and McCoys. But in this case, maybe the disappearance of the dog means the end of gunplay.

Then again, though there’s not necessarily any reason to fear a repeat of Friday’s confrontation, you can forgive surrounding residents for any jitters. If I lived there and my dog accidentally got loose — or my grass grew too tall, or my radio played a little loud — I’d be worried not about getting a ticket from code enforcement, but staring into the muzzle of a gun.

PHIL LUCIANO is a Journal Star columnist. He can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com, facebook.com/philluciano or (309) 686-3155. Follow him on Twitter @LucianoPhil. He co-hosts Barstorming, a video blog of unique local taps and eateries taps, at http://www.pjstar.com/entertainment/barstorming